Portland City Council takes exploratory step toward ADM gift

Approved proposal by Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering to conduct environmental site assessment on a portion of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) property after ADM proposed removing silos there and donating land to city.

The Portland City Council approved a proposal by Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering to conduct an environmental site assessment on a portion of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) property after ADM proposed removing silos there and donating the land to the city.

The Phase One Environmental Site Assessment of the west side of 401 E. Grand River Ave. is "a preliminary review of the property" and its use in the past, Fleis & VandenBrink engineer Paul Galdes explained to council members. This would include a site visit and a review of other environmental reports that may have been done.

"It's a cursory review to determine if we should pursue other (more detailed) environmental assessments," Galdes said. "There is potential liability with any environmental issues (on the property). Taking this property is taking on future potential maintenance and cost."

The silos would be removed from "ground elevation up," he said. In addition there are chunks of concrete in the river; however, before anything can be removed, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality would have to be involved, because this could potentially affect river flow.

"You can't just start pulling that type of concrete structure from the river," said Galdes.

There also are retaining walls around the property, and changing river flow could change erosion and affect these walls long-term, said Portland City Manager Tutt Gorman.

"We have to do our due diligence and make sure the property is suited for its intended and proposed use (before accepting ADM's donation of land)," Gorman said. "I am cautiously optimistic that the report will come back OK. The concern is really more with liability, and sharing of those costs."

The price tag of the assessment is $2,000. ADM has said it would pay half, said Gorman.

Should this project go through, there would be "substantial impact to traffic," Galdes said. ADM expects the project could take three weeks to demolish the silos. If Divine Highway is shut down for that period of time, it would require "a significant detour" of 7.5 miles over gravel roads or 15 over paved roads.

"It makes sense to ask them to keep one lane of traffic open," he said. "It's going to cause a tremendous headache for residents."

"There's no good way to find alternatives as far as detours. School is in session now. Ideally this would be done in the summer months," said Gorman. "We have to look to see what is beneficial. This would be a huge burden to the community."